teleoscope: Christmas 2013 Haslup Newsletter

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No, I guess that won’t do. I must ignore the cursor blinking on the blank screen and get on with this year’s North Carolina Haslups Christmas Letter. So here goes.

We will start with Liam and Eva who turned two in November.

In other news, Chris and Reid are in the process of moving to the Washington DC area. Reid is excited to have found a position teaching in a small school near Leesburg, Va. and she and Chris have moved into an apartment near the school.

Chris is still working in Raleigh for the present while he looks for a graphics design job in the DC area. He does the weekly commute thing – living in Leesburg on the weekends and staying with us during the week – which is a bit of a grind but he is still young and seems to be bearing up well. It is a treat for us to get to spend so much time with him but we miss Reid.

Amber and Lee have (again) had an absurdly busy but largely successful year. Amber graduated from medical school in June and was accepted for a residency in emergency medicine in New Jersey. Lee found a job teaching at a local college nearby. She and Lee found and bought a charming hundred year-old house in Pennsauken, New Jersey, moved, started work, learned the joys of hundred year-old plumbing – Lee managed to match the original tile pretty well – all while taking care of two energetic toddlers. They are all busy, prosperous and rather too far away to suit the twins’ grandmother Irene.

Lee and Irene celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary twice. The first celebration was a Valentine’s Day week cruise of the Hawaiian Islands on Norwegian’s Pride of America. Irene had originally planned to schedule the cruise later in the year to be closer to our (August) anniversary but someone told her that if you want to see whales then February was the month to do Hawaii. The photo at right was taken from a boat that was taking us snorkeling. Irene is in the gray plaid. Whales were everywhere. We had a wonderful time and Irene is already talking about doing it again in a few years.

The second celebration was a trip to Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center. Disney is always fun (that’s what they do and they are good at it) but we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the Space Center. They have a new-ish museum built around the Space Shuttle “Atlantis” and it is a fabulous museum. We recommend it highly.

This note is sent in the sincere hope that it will find you and yours well, healthy and enjoying a wonderful holiday season and a successful and happy new year.